What Is 'IT'?

A very influential individual once declared ‘Conversation rules the nation’. Yet, while this is a very profound statement which refers to the power of the words we choose to convey, the opposing perspective is also true, that our conversations can also destroy the nation.

In these current times where everything we experience is now offered compact, condensed, and compressed in size, quantity, and also quality - we are now paying a very high price for either less, or nothing at all. Even our conversations with each other have become minimised, cut back, diminished, and shortened. We are living in an era where we are attempting to communicate, collaborate, and connect with each other with very little effort. Worryingly, even our verbal interactions and conversations we are engaging in have unfortunately fallen foul to this bare minimum and restricted reality.

Text messages were originally designed for us to converse with one another by using as few words as possible, with limited effort of expression, and minimal thought. And it is this less productive style of communication that has now transferred into our verbal conversations also. In the same manner that text messages are synonymous and accepted for their form of ‘Short Message Service’ of abbreviated and cropped content, so too have many of our verbally spoken conversations sadly gone down that very same constricted and confined route.

This concerning observation has been brought about by the increased use of a particular statement, which is flippantly being affirmed by many people. This is the type of phrase which not only has the ability to hinder, delay and even abruptly end our conversations, but it has the power to bring stagnation to our vital human conversational expansion and evolution.

So what is this ‘phrase’ or ‘statement’ which has the ability to cause such conversational destruction in our human language? What is this ‘declaration’ or ‘affirmation’ that has the ability to prevent our mental and emotional enhancement and advancement towards positively progressive conversations, personally, professionally, and even globally? What is it that can deny and stunt the growth of our conversational skills, which many people now choose as a mental ‘default’ mechanism? This is the mind blocking and overused conversation paralysing comment of “IT IS WHAT IT IS”.

There are many reasons why we may choose to use this popular turn of phrase. From a lack of knowledge, to a lack of desire to actively think and explore further, we seem to be consciously choosing to use this statement as a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Just like our short form content in text messages, the aim of our conversations now seem to be an attempt to get our point across in as fewer words as possible, without the need to search our thoughts and elaborate further. Saying “It is what it is” ultimately explains nothing, confirms nothing, and leads to an increase of nothing, except closed conversational doors.

When we say “It is what it is”what are we actually saying? Are we saying we don’t know the answers and we just don’t want to admit it? Are we saying we simply cannot be bothered to search and seek for the answers we need? And what exactly is ‘IT’? Is ‘IT’ something which we should not question or debate? Is ‘IT’ a mystery which we must not even attempt to uncover or solve?

By choosing to use this turn of phase what we are unintentionally doing is giving away our freedom to use the power of our highly curious, creative, and knowledgeable brain. We are negatively influencing the next generation with the message that we must just accept that things are the way they appear to be, without rhyme or reason, or inquisition. We are refusing to activate our natural gift of our consciously inquisitive human and spiritual mind, instincts and intuition,

When we affirm “It is what it is” what are we not actually saying? We are not saying that it is absolutely fine to not have the answers to all questions, but we can take action and do our due-diligence, and deploy our practical and mental skills to seek further research, in order to find our own answers and conclusions for all uncertainty we encounter. Neither are we saying that due to the universal laws of cause and effect, that even though some things may not make any sense to us immediately, yet everything happens for a particular reason, and it is basically up to us to put in the required time and work to discover the answers ourselves.

As long as we are actively choosing not to delve deeper for the answers to the many questions life presents to us daily, we are choosing not to use our conversational attributes to connect to our natural imaginative and intuitive mind. Our ongoing declaration and narrative of “It is what it is” without any forethought, current thought, or afterthought is indeed downplaying our authentic mental power of thought.

So what is ‘IT’ exactly? Are we using this minuscule two letter word as a replacement for the ultimate grande word of ‘LIFE’? Are we saying that “Life is what life is”? And if so, what is life? Life is for learning, loving, and living. We must remind ourselves and each other that we are all innately created to explore the many hidden corners of our mind, heart, spirit and soul. And we must strive to live our lives at such a high level, that we will naturally love to learn and share our findings and our thoughts with one another. It is only by doing this through our continuous communication of verbal expression, that we will remain motivated, enthusiastic and dedicated to enjoy our gift of life.

We may try to justify many flippant comments or phrases as just a figure of speech, but the biblical verse ‘life and death are in the power of the tongue’ is an extremely prevalent truth which we should all keep in mind. And the next time either another person - or we ourselves - utter those highly questionable words of conversational demolition “IT IS WHAT IT IS”, we can take that opportunity to make the conscious effort to breathe life back into our verbal communication, with the gift of elaboration and self expression through the spoken word. Instead of allowing our conversational efforts to be abruptly abandoned and left hanging in mid air, we can simply ask the elusive question ‘What exactly do you mean?’.

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